Dan Hurley, Archie Miller share similar, complicated history

1of2Indiana coach Archie Miller shouts during the second half of his team's game against Florida State.Photo: Darron Cummings / Associated Press

2of2Coach Dan Hurley and UConn will face off against Indiana on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden in New York.Photo: Jessica Hill / Associated Press

Dan Hurley and Archie Miller couldn’t share more similarities.

Both are sons of legendary high school coaches — Bob Hurley Sr., a Hall of Famer at St. Anthony’s High in New Jersey, and John Miller, who won 657 games over 30 years at Blackhawk High in Beaver Falls, Pa.

Both were good college point guards — Hurley at Seton Hall, Miller at NC State — whose playing careers were eclipsed by their respective older brothers, Bobby Hurley and Sean Miller. And those older brothers are not only current college coaches, as well, but in-state rivals in the Pac-12 — Bobby at Arizona State, Sean at Arizona.

“Big shadows that were cast before us with dads and older brothers,” Dan noted. “We’ve kind of connected that way.”

Dan Hurley, 46, and Archie Miller, 41, are now head coaches at UConn and Indiana and will face each other on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in the second game of a Jimmy V Classic doubleheader. The two went head-to-head numerous times in the Atlantic 10, where they coached at Rhode Island and Dayton, respectively. And since both coaches also share an intensity that Hurley self-describes as “insane,” it should be no surprise that the two have had a clash or two in the past. One of them even involved a little “Spygate” intrigue.

On Feb. 12, 2014, URI traveled to UD Arena to face Dayton. During pregame shootaround, a member of the Rams’ traveling party noticed that a fullcourt, wide-angle shot of the basketball court was showing on the television sets in the concourse as well as inside the locker room. There was no sound, but if this was an in-house feed, the Rams’ shootaround and gameday walkthrough could easily have been watched by anyone in the building — including Dayton’s coaching staff.

According to multiple sources close to the URI program at the time, members of the Rams’ staff weren’t pleased. In the pregame handshake that night, it appeared Hurley had words for Miller, who responded with a look of incredulity. Dayton won the game 76-69, in the midst of a six-game Rhody losing streak that surely didn’t make Hurley’s mood any better.

The incident was looked into and got as far as both schools’ athletic directors, according to one source. Dayton’s AD, Tim Wabler, insisted that it was just a security camera, that the Flyers’ coaches’ offices weren’t even in the building, and that if they were really cheating, why wouldn’t they have just turned the TVs in the locker room and concourse off? Nothing more came of it.

In subsequent return trips to UD Arena, however, one person close to URI basketball noted that a flip through the channels on the same TVs revealed no shots of the court, just static.

Whatever tensions may have existed between Hurley and Miller ultimately have long since been put to bed. Hurley brushed the Dayton situation off on Sunday and had nothing but positive words for Miller.

“Anytime you play a team that’s coached by Archie or Sean, it’s gonna be a sound team,” Hurley said. “They’re gonna take good shots, not turn the ball over, play with good pace, rebound and defend. They’re teams you always enjoy competing against, because they’re not gonna give you anything easy. “

Still, considering the intensity of the two coaches and everything that’s at stake for a pair of former national powerhouse programs trying to make it back to relevancy, there’s always a chance things could get chippy on the sidelines Tuesday night.

HELLO, OLD FRIEND

There will be an old friend at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, prior to the UConn-Indiana game. Steve Enoch, the former Husky big man via Norwalk, will help lead No. 1 Louisville into action against Texas Tech in the 7 p.m. Jimmy V Classic opener.

Enoch is currently second on the Cardinals in both scoring (10.7 ppg) and rebounding (7.4). The 6-foot-10, 255-pound senior center already has three double-doubles this season after producing just two in his first three seasons of college ball. He is seen as a mid-second round 2020 NBA Draft pick, but could certainly improve his stock as the season progresses.

WIDE-OPEN COLLEGE HOOPS LANDSCAPE?

Duke has lost at home to Stephen F. Austin. Kentucky has lost at home to Evansville. There have already been four different No. 1 teams in a season that is barely a month old.

It appears the college basketball landscape is wide open this season. Just ask Josh Carlton.

“There are no dominant teams this year,” the UConn center said. “I think it should be exciting for us to get in the mix, because there’s nobody really stamping their name across college basketball. Every game on our schedule is winnable, and an opportunity to show that we’re building something here.”

But don’t think for a moment that Hurley is pounding that point home with this team.

“With where we’re at, program-wise, no,” he said on Sunday. “Because I don’t think we’ve earned the right to start doing that here. We’re trying to establish ourselves as a winning program and as potentially a good team. That’s the message to the players. We’ve shown flashes and signs of having the chance to be a good team this year, but we haven’t earned the right to do that yet.”